Sunday, September 29, 2013

This
is in response to the “festival” titled ‘Kashmir –Before our eyes : A festival
of films on Kashmir’ jointly organized by the school of Arts and Aesthetics ,
Centre for English Studies , Jawaharlal Nehru University and Films Division
Zone, Mumbai on Sep. 22-29 , 2013. This
so called film festival on Kashmir featured some selective short documentaries
besides some selected readings and deliberative discussions. Many known ‘intellectuals’, film makers,
M.Phil and PhD students and some lesser know song writers had been invited to
debate Kashmir in SAA Auditorium of JNU in New Delhi. Whether or not these
people will help solve Kashmir Imbroglio is difficult to comprehend but
something which is very explicit in the programme and in the after-movie discussions
is that the arguments on Kashmir are severely presented in an obfuscated manner
and an obstruction of ambiguities is created to form a smokescreen precisely to
overshadow and evade the real issues and questions on Kashmir. These local and
non-local ‘junkers’ through their politico-intellectual
and economic supremacy are hard trying to capture the voices of dissent and through
their noblesses-oblige are presenting
the distorted arguments by creating a misleading impression of the ‘real Kashmir
issue’. These traditional and
vulgarized film makers, state funded intellectuals can be considered the
category of ‘intellectuals’ which in the words of famous Philosopher and
Intellectual Antonio Gramsci ‘are organically bound to the state and state
machinery’. These people believe and always carry a misconception that they are
a lot of autonomous, independent and unbiased intellectuals, when in reality they have managed this Gramscian ‘esprit de corps’ through the state
patronage. Cut short, state feeds these intellectuals, nutrifies them,
recognizes them and then makes use of them to change, malign and distort the
basic character of people’s movement and popular discourse. These individuals
hailing from various ‘elite and royal’ families have formed a guild of self
styled celebrated authors and song writers whose work the state can tolerate,
reward and appreciate. These self styled ‘intellectuals’ can be very much
compared with the ‘American Negro
Intellectuals’, who were groomed simply to be used as agents for the
American expansionism in Africa or for that matter with some Indian intellectuals who by blood and
colour were Indians but in reality were carrying the Whiteman’s agenda. These
state funded pseudo- intellectuals, amateur film makers, royal and elite
radicals are wearing the mask for concealing their real identity and are busy
repeating the litany of their ‘fancy’ idea. Busy, as they are, in objectification
and commodification of the dead souls and rape victims for their personnel
privileges. Busy in letting unwanted propaganda and misinformation to spread
about Kashmir. And after successfully doing all this drama these individuals in
collaboration with the state organize an annual feast or what they call a “film
festival”.

Festival for what?

Is it celebrating the dead souls of
tens of thousands of Kashmiris who where mercilessly killed by the state or
entertaining the heinous mass rape of Kunan Poshpora’s victims? Is this the festival
for successfully commodifying the agony of the victims or festival for
achieving all their implicit designs?

In the name of these short films these
people are actually not countering the ‘bootstrapped
silence of the army’s continuing impunity’ as is argued by others elsewhere
but they are producing the same rhetorical lamentations and presenting the same
old absurd and distorted views about Kashmir. This lot, through various
techniques and technologies are confusing the masses, bringing in unnecessary
and irrelevant discourses and present Kashmir as a ‘communal issue’, which is
inherently fraught with blatant lies and far from the reality.

May I dare to ask some other bold
questions to these royal fellows and elite film makers? That who on earth has
given you the right and license to commodify the sentiment of the oppressed? Who
has given these ‘imperial intellectuals’ the authority for creating social,
economic and political capital by broadcasting and romanticizing the torture
and nagging voice of the victims? Will you ‘elite intellectuals’ please
explicate on your ‘theory of ‘romanticization’ and tell us how and who sponsors
you to USA immediately after you write a novel or make a documentary? Will you please for heaven’s sake tell us
also about your implicit messages you carry in these ‘powerful’ films and
novels which otherwise goes beyond a common man’s comprehension?

One
wonders why this intractable group of pseudo intellectuals are so dear to the
state that a University of repute (National in character) is dedicating all its
assets to welcome them. University officials waiting with garlands and a red-carpet
reception for these ‘visibly yuppie
revolutionaries’ raises many questions and serious doubts. Because the same
state in the recent past booked and bulldozed
many individuals for exercising the same intellectual right. Jammu and Kashmir
police without wasting time booked 15 officials of JK Board on sedition charges
in 2011 for publishing an illustration in a local text book. For one
illustration fifteen officials were jailed. Not only this but the same state very recently arrested and suspended another college
professor under the charges of ‘Unlawful Activities Act’ for framing a question
for graduate level examinees allegedly attempting "to glorify the Kashmiri
stone pelters”. Why this discrepancy when both the parties and individuals are
explicitly asking and doing the same thing? Why one lands in a jail with dozens
of FIRs and the other in Manhattan USA? Why are some so dear to the state that
even the top level officials of the state are accompanying for documenting and
colleting so called “facts” about Kashmir conflict and the other is pushed
behind the dead, dark and dissolute walls of state torture centers.

The answer to these questions is
probably simple and easy to comprehend. These self-styled poster people of our struggle
are paid and encouraged to damage and do much harm and exacerbate the real
cause. They are nourished to help state create a smokescreen to hide and erase
the real issues. Kashmir conflict, which is an internationally recognized
political dispute need not be captured either in documentaries or in novel
writing just for economic and other incentives but a discourse devoid of
opportunism and adventurism is required. We all need to immediately dispel the
perception that a ‘short film’ or a novel with concocted stories will help the
cause of Kashmir and we all should eschew this intellectual vandalism of Kashmir discourse by doing this filthy, murky
politics which is full of drama and state –melody.

The author is PhD scholar at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

THE POWER OF AN IDEA

They are driven by curiosity and armed with creativity. From harnessing everything from the sun to the ground below, Majid Maqbool reports on Kashmiris who are inspired by the belief that one bright idea can change their world.

Creative Twins

Refaz Ahmad Wani and Ishfaq Ahmad Wani, 17-year-old twin brothers, are unlike other youngsters in their neighborhood. They look alike, think differently, and work together as a team. Fascinated by innovative ideas since childhood, the inquisitive brothers always wanted to make new things. Hailing from the remote Wandewalgam village in Kokernag town of south Kashmir, some 80 kms away from Srinagar, the twins have more than fifteen innovations to their credit.

Refaz and Ishfaq were awarded for their innovations by the National Innovations Foundation (NIF) recently, at an event held at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. While giving away the award to the twins, former president APJ Abdul Kalam called them “creative twins.” The brothers study in 11th in a government high school.

Out of the total 4104 entries received from across India, NIF shortlisted 32 entries, and finally 23 innovations were awarded. NIF had received 160 entries from J&K, and only the twin innovations of Refaz and Ishfaq won the award from the state. They stood second at the all-India level in the high school category.

When the twin brothers arrived at IIM to receive the award, they were delighted to see one of their innovations—the two-in-one spade and hoe—manufactured by an Ahmadabad-based company. Their innovation was presented to them at the event. The two-in-one spade and hoe, they have been told, is ready to make a debut in the market. The brothers say this concept came to them when they went shopping for a spade and a hoe that they needed in their field. “We had to buy a spade and a hoe from the market and it cost us Rs 1000,” says Ishfaq. “And when we were working in the field, we thought of making a two-in-one spade and hoe which is easy to carry around and also saves the cost of buying two items,” says Ishfaq.

Another award winning innovation made by the brothers is a foldable water bottle. Its size can be reduced by folding it in, based on how much water is left in the bottle. Additionally, the brothers have come up with several other innovations in the past which have been accepted and registered at the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), Ahmadabad.

As young children, Ishfaq and Refaz would make mud sculptures of animals and birds. One day, when they were in 5th standard, they saw a JCB vehicle on the road outside their home. Fascinated, they wanted to make a similar model at home.

“We thought of making one at home but since we didn’t have the required material, we made a mini model out of clay,” says Ishfaq. “Then we made it using wood as it was readily available and inserted some springs in the model,” recollects Refaz. It took them twelve days to make a wooden road roller.

With maturity came creativity, and their experiments continued.

Ishfaq and Refaz say their parents have been incredibly supportive. Their father, a vegetable seller in Jammu, is a diabetic. The news of his sons being awarded brought him some relief. “Whatever he earns is spent on his treatment there,” says the mother of twin brothers. “We have to depend on our relatives to run our home,” she says. The brothers, aware of their financial limitations, are worried about their father. Their innovations have not yet yielded monetary gains. They want to come up with more innovations, with the hopes that it will support their family financially.

Some of their innovations that have already been registered by NIF include an injection breaker, apple catcher and clipper, easy meat cutter, a geometrical pen, bread thrower, egg breaker, and a lighting pen. The brothers say they created these and other innovations based on the need for them, and they believe their creations are beneficial for all people. “The injection breaker idea came when I went to a medical shop for an injection. I saw that when they would break the injection, the glass would fall on the floor and it could even injure people,” says Refaz. “When I came back, I shared the idea with my bother and we started working on the injection breaker,” he says. “It can be a useful device for doctors and nurses,” says Ishfaq.

Similarly, the idea of an apple catcher and clipper struck them when they had gone to a nearby apple orchard in their village. They saw people struggling to bring down apples from distant branches. At their home, they brainstormed about the idea of making an apple catcher and clipper to solve this problem. “Our apple catcher and clipper has a long stick and a clipper which can pluck apples from even distant branches, which cannot be otherwise reached by hand,” explains Ishfaq. “When the apple is clipped, instead of falling down, it falls in a pouch which is attached to the apple catcher,” he says.

The enthusiasm for doing something different has also rubbed off on their sister Runcy Jan, also studying in 11th. Last year, when Runcy was washing dishes one day in the kitchen, an idea of making a plate washing machine came to her. She shared it with her brothers. “She told us that she wants to make a machine which can wash dishes, and then we helped her to make a model which has been accepted by NIF as well,” says Ishfaq. “But it needs money to make the machine,” Refaz points out.

The brothers have converted a store in the second storey of their modest home into a small science lab. It’s filled with used electrical devices and other locally acquired equipment. All their certificates, clay and wooden models made over the years, and their paintings are on display in this room. They have named it “Science Innovation Club.” On the door hangs a simple white paper, with these words written on it: “Welcome to my life!” Whenever a new idea strikes them, they start working on it in their humble science club.

The brothers say they’re upset that they’re studying arts subjects, when all they really want to study is science. They hope they will be allowed to study science in 12th next year. “We didn’t get any support from our state government,” says Refaz. “Even our school is unaware of the award we recently received. Some teachers even discourage us from asking questions,” says Ishfaq.

The brothers are hoping to develop their Science Innovation Club into a learning center for other children who are interested in making innovations. “If this club is registered and the government helps us with funds, we could encourage many other students to come up with innovations,” says Refaz. “We want to help students who are interested in practical science and innovative ideas,” adds Ishfaq.

The brothers say they have many innovative ideas which they want to work on in future. “We have 71 innovative ideas in our files, and out of them, we have sent 37 ideas to NIF for reference and registration,” says Refaz. “The scientists at NIF often tell us that the ideas that come from us are excellent,” quips Ishfaq.

Despite their poverty, the inquisitive brothers are rich in ideas. They’re driven by a passion to do something different. New ideas come to them all the time; sometimes, in the middle of the night. “When a new idea comes, we work hard on its execution in our science club,” says Refaz. “We look at the market viability of the innovation and how it can be beneficial to people,” he says with maturity. “As we grow up, more ideas will come to us,” says Ishfaq.

Methane-Collecting Dairy Farm

A few years ago, Zulfqarul Haq—who is presently pursuing his Masters’ in veterinary from the college of veterinary science, MHOW in Indore—came up with an innovative idea of a “methane collecting dairy farm” to reduce the greenhouse effect. His proposed dairy farm can collect methane burped by cattle. Each cattle burps about 250 – 500 liters of methane per day, which is 25 percent more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping atmospheric heat, a cause of worry as far as global warming is concerned.

“This hypothesis is given on a scientific basis, using chemical properties of methane,” says Haq. “I attempted to establish new ideas to reduce methane, which has caused an alarming concern.”

The heat-trapping gas could dramatically accelerate global warming. The dairy farm has two phases, closed phases and open phases. “It is closed when methane production reaches peak level (2-3 hours after feeding). Animals respire through specially designed Tobin tubes open at their manger. The rest of the dairy farm is kept open as usual,” says Haq.

As methane is lighter than air, he explains, methane will rise up and will be sucked by a pump and deposited in the methane collecting chamber which is surrounded by liquid nitrogen, to provide critical temperature for methane and critical pressures is applied. “Air will not liquefy as its critical temperature and pressure are not attained. Thus the collected methane will be used as fuel to meet the energy crisis and also reduce green house effect,” he says.

Zulfiqar presented the methane collecting dairy farm hypothesis at the Annual Conference and National Symposium of IAAVR (Indian Association for Advancement of Veterinary Research) early this year in Jaipur, where he awarded a certificate of merit for the best innovative idea.

Recently, Zulfiqar also stood first in his university and third at an all-India level competition of Vetoquinol Vijeta champ, which was organized by Vetoquinol India across 20 renowned veterinary colleges of India.

Unsung Innovator

When Abid Hussain Nagoo was 12, he would work as a mechanic after school and repair tippers in Athwajan. His father was a daily wager and Abid needed to financially support his family. Fiddling with things came naturally to him. After dropping out of school in 11th, Abid started experimenting with electrical devices and other spare parts at his home in Rainawari. And before he knew it, Abid, now 26, was on his way to becoming an innovator.

As a kid, Abid was fascinated by how solar-powered calculators would work. “I became interested in things that work on solar energy,” he says. Soon after dropping out of school, he made a small solar lantern, which he later sold to a roadside hawker. “I pulled out the base of kerosene lantern and instead placed a battery and a nine volt bulb,” he says. Soon, he started making solar lanterns.

Abid wanted to explore the market for his handmade solar lanterns. He went to Khayam and placed his handmade solar lantern inside a store. “The store owner started asking about how I made this lantern and if he can buy one,” says Abid. But Abid sold it to a roadside hawker for Rs. 500. “I gave it to him since he sold things on the roadside, and the lantern would be seen by many people,” says Abid. Some days later, the same hawker approached Abid, asking him to make more lanterns. The hawker now wanted to sell his handmade solar lanterns. “I asked a friend for some money to buy some kerosene lanterns,” says Abid. Then I converted them into solar lanterns at home,” he says. “I made ten lanterns in two nights, and all of them were sold by that hawker in one day.”

Abid has come up with around 15 innovations since then, including a high intensity solar light, a mini solar inverter which can give a six hour backup. “I have also made a high pressure air blower, which can be used on roads to clear heavy stones,” says Abid. He is also working on a solar water purifier, which will convert dirty water into drinkable water.

Abid does not have a regular job. He earns his living by repairing streets lights for the tourism department and installing solar lighting systems at homes. “I approached the bank for a loan to set up my own workshop and I also applied for many government schemes but no one helped me,” laments Abid.

Abid claims that he is the only person who can repair the solar power plant in Kashmir. “In government departments here, there are employees who take huge salaries, but they don’t even know the difference between a diode and resistance,” he says. The government departments often approach him whenever there is any technical fault in big electrical and solar devices which their employees are unable to repair.

Abid is bitter about the fact that one of his innovative ideas was stolen from him by an engineer he knew. He says he had come up with the idea of an electric jacket three years ago, which he had subsequently submitted in the USIC department of Kashmir University in 2009. “But that engineer stole the idea from me,” says Abid. “He approached me once and told me that in winters one can’t travel on a bike, and I told him that I have made an electric jacket that can keep the biker warm,” says Abid.

“Then he told me to develop it and I made the jacket in three days and showed it to him, but later I read in newspapers that he is claiming to have made the electric jacket which is not true,” says Abid who holds the university responsible for the theft of his idea. “My jacket was lying in the university for two years and they didn’t bring it in the market,” he says. “That man is now bringing the jacket to the market in his name, but he knows that it was my idea which he stole,” adds Abid.

Although disappointed by the theft of his innovation, Abid has not stopped working on other innovations. He is presently at work on a solar shikara, which will run on solar batteries. The idea came to him when he was sent by the tourism department to install solar lights at Char Chinar in Dal Lake. “An old man was rowing the shikara I was in. I saw him struggling for one and a half hour from the Nehru Park area to reach the Char Chinar,” says Abid. “Then I thought, why can’t we have a solar shikara that will be powered by solar batteries? It will save both energy and time,” he says.

In the backyard of his Rainawari residence, Abid started working on the concept. He had to buy equipment from Delhi, spending money from his own pocket. “I also hired a shikara on rent for a couple of days to test drive it on solar light,” he says. Once the solar shikara is functional, Abid says it will take only 15 minutes to reach Char Chinar from Nehru Park. “But I needs money to buy motors and others equipment,” he says. “I wish I had a lot of money to buy all these equipment.”

Abid has received recognition from USIC department of Kashmir University, and he has been sent several letters from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in New Delhi. However, Abid says no financial help came his way. He was not provided any employment, either. “The government science departments from Delhi would write in their letters that they will financially support my innovations only if I send them documents like a work plan and test certificates,” he says. “But who will give me a test certificate here?” He says the paperwork should have been done by the university itself, as he had registered his innovations with them. “Most of my innovations are gathering dust in the university,” he says. “But nothing is done to bring them to the market.”

Abid remembers calling the director of a scientific research institute in Delhi once last year. Since some of his innovations were registered with them, he wanted to know about their progress. “Abid, aap pehlay wahan pathrav khatam karo, phir dekhengay,” the director told him, and hung up.

“At times I feel had we been with China, we would have progressed,” says Abid. “They would surely valu skilled people like us,” he says. “India only wants to exploit grassroot innovators of Kashmir and exploit our innovations in their market without giving any benefit to the Kashmiri innovators,” he says.

No Support

Prof. G. Mohiuddin Bhat, the Director of University Science Instrumentation Centre (USIC) in Kashmir University, says the state government is not yet sensitized about our grassroots innovators who are in need of financial support for their innovations. “Several times, I have met ministers and even the Chief Minister in this regard, but nothing happened on the ground, despite their promises,” he says.

Prof. Bhat says 80 percent of innovators that come to their centre are from rural areas. “I see innovators who are mostly poor people, and they come up with their innovations to solve problems they face in rural areas,” he says. Bhat says in USIC, since 2008, they have patented more than 20 innovations coming from grassroots innovators, and four of them were awarded.

He says the state government should come forward with a detailed program to financially support Kashmiri innovators. “The central agencies take time to release funds and there is a lot of delay and paper work involved,” he says.

Researchers say local innovators require state government support as only one institute at the university is not enough to cater to the increasing number of grassroots innovators emerging from the valley. “Unemployment is rising. These innovators are coming up with new ideas. The government should recognize them. They should help them in reaching out to the market as these innovators cannot do it on their own,” says S. Fayaz Ahmad, a researcher and author of the book “Unsung Innovators of Kashmir” that was published this year. The book profiles grassroots innovators from across the valley.

Fayaz says the patent system is not proving to be beneficial for Kashmir’s grassroots innovators. “The patent concept works for bigger corporations and will not benefit our grassroots innovators,” he says. “Also when you get a patent, you have to maintain the patent and for that they have to pay a regular fee which these innovators can’t afford.” He says instead of patent system, there should be a reward system for local innovators. “The state government should recognize these innovators and take their innovation to the market,” says Fayaz.

Innovators, he says, should be allowed to explore their local market first, as their innovations are essentially created keeping in mind their local needs and concerns. “They didn’t come up with innovations so that they will be taken outside the state and exploited in other markets,” says Fayaz. “And even if their innovation is exploited in markets outside the state, the actual benefit should come to the local innovator, but that is not happening at present,” he points out

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Where innovations masquerade as traditions

In his book, Unsung Innovators of Kashmir, Sheikh Fayaz Ahmad documents the creations of the Valley

in Daily Financial Chronicle (published in collaboration with International Herald Tribune, New York Times)

Undoubtedly, Kashmir has gone through the rough terrain of history –
being always ruled by people who were not its own until 1947 when rays
of democracy began to shine on its lands and local leaders finally got
hold of power. The foreign rulers, be it Afghans, Mughals, British,
Sikhs or Dogras, offered no conducive atmosphere for education to reach
common people, who were condemned to oppression. Despite such big
disadvantages, Kashmir has always been a place of great inventions and
discoveries.

Dick Teres, the author of the Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of
Modern Science refers to Kashmir as the place, which gave iron
suspension bridges to the world. The earliest seamless globe —
considered one of the most remarkable feats in metallurgy — was invented
first in Kashmir by Ali Kashmiri in 1589. Even the main calligrapher of
Mughal times, Mohammad Hussain, was a Kashmiri. The Kashmiri products,
be it pashmina shawls, handicrafts, rugs and papier-mâché, which are
acclaimed worldwide, are actually products of local creativity,
indigenous ingenuity and the innovative potential of Kashmiris.

A recent book on Kashmir innovations titled Unsung Innovators of
Kashmir presents the creative genius of informal innovators, whose great
contribution to the field of innovation is hardly known or recognised
by the government or people at large. Authored by a young Kashmiri
researcher Sheikh Fayaz Ahmad, the book catalogues the successful
stories of some informal innovators from the Valley. Ahmad, who is an
Mphil research scholar in JNU’s social science department, has
meticulously documented Kashmir innovations. Flip through the book and
you will find nuggets of information such as polythene is biodegradable,
that electronic brush could create equally striking paintings and that
home appliances could run on solar inverter.

“No doubt Kashmir is an abode of rich art, but at the same time it's a hub of unsung innovators,” assures Ahmad.

Ahmad, who hails from Kupwara — a frontier and backward district of
Kashmir — came across Kahmiri informal innovators when he did a brief
stint as a reporter with one of Kashmir’s English dailies. He wrote
extensively on the subject. The book also reproduces reports and
articles that were published in the newspaper. Ahmad’s book stresses
that innovation can’t always be a linear process as advocated by many
innovation theorists. “In Kashmir, hundreds of innovative products are
in the market and all these products are not the outcome of formal and
systematic funding,” he says. For instance, he cites the creative genius
involved in the creation of kani, pashmina and kangri (fire pot). “All
these innovative products belong to the informal sector.” Ahmad is
presently writing his research thesis on innovations in Kashmir’s
pashmina shawl.

We see the present Kashmir embroiled in a 20-year-old conflict and one
wonders if that has not affected the creativity of the people. “Yes,
conflict had affected adversely the innovative potential of Kashmiris.
Government hardly shows any interest in local innovations,” says Ahmad.
Despite facing enormous odds, some unsung innovators continue to thrive
and create new things, registering the fact that even in the midst of
violence creation is possible. “The book is a tribute to Kashmir’s
unsung innovators whose innovations went unacknowledged and
unappreciated,” says Ahmad. Indeed, Ahmad’s book has represented the
aspirations and the hardships that the innovators are/were facing well.

For Kashmir’s informal innovators, market, profit, consumerism or even
monopoly seems not a priority or an extrinsic motivating factor. “They
innovate simply to solve the problems being confronted by their
societies. Many of them do not have any idea of market monopoly or the
patent system,” says Ahmad.

According to him, the title, unsung innovators of Kashmir, is befitting
as well. “Because I have tried to profile all forgotten heroes and
heroines of the valley. The innovators mentioned in my book are from the
informal sector, they had never been to the school or to the college,”
says the young author.

We invite scholars from innovation studies, development studies, economics, science and technology
studies to contribute papers to this special issue of the African Journal for Science, Technology, Innovation and Development
(AJSTID) (www.ajstid.com). The AJSTID is an interdisciplinary and
refereed international journal on science, technology, innovation and
development in Africa and other low-income countries and is published by Taylor
and Francis (Routledge) UK (http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rajs20/5/1#.UZYEbJW1xo4), with the
publication frequency of 6 issues per year.AJSTID has been established to highlight the crucial role of science,
technology and innovation for development and to promote research on the
contribution of knowledge creation and diffusion to development in Global
south.

This special issue is intending to
explore research questions pertaining to innovative activities in the informal sector of the economy.
The importance of informal sector
in generating employment and providing livelihood security in low and middle
income countries cannot be overemphasised. However, the driving forces behind
its sustained
competitive advantage
has been little studied, and, in particular, understanding of the process of knowledge generation, technological learning and innovations in these
sectors has remained inadequate.The intent of this
special issue is to provide a forum to advance our understanding of informal sector innovations by
examining its various nuances;
concepts of innovations; knowledge generation, knowledge exchange, and their
underlying motivations will also be covered in this upcoming
special issue. We call for full research papers that may address, but are not
limited to:

§Role of universities and research institutions in
informal sector innovations

§Regulation and informal sector innovations

Submissions will be refereed for
relevance to the theme as well as academic rigor and originality. The papers
should be no longer than 4000 – 7000 words with an abstract of 150 words;
references should be sent in an Endnote
file. High quality articles not deemed to be sufficiently relevant to the
special issue may be considered for publication in a subsequent non-themed
issue.

Please send your
work no later than 15th of November 2013 to Mammo Muchie at muchiem@tut.ac.zaorSaradindu Bhaduri at saradindu@jnu.ac.in